Crystal moved to Central Louisiana (her native home) from Anchorage, Alaska, where she was the Director of Emergency Response with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. She led the emergency response team who cared for the first wave of COVID positive people who were being evacuated from Wuhan by the U.S. Embassy. Their flights were landing in Anchorage and there the group had to be tested and quarantined.
She interviewed for the CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini Emergency Room Director position in March 2020, in what was considered the beginning of the pandemic. She was pregnant with her second child (she has a teen girl). Her family moved back home to Central Louisiana in June 2020. In August, she tested positive for COVID-19, she also had emergency surgery on her gall bladder while battling COVID and went in to septic shock. While in the COVID Intensive Care Unit (ICU), she went into preterm labor at 23 weeks. Her baby didn’t survive…this while she was alone in the COVID ICU. She had to learn to walk again and left the hospital in November 20, 2020 with four drains hanging out of her abdomen. She returned to work in the CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini ER just before Christmas of 2020.
Today she remains committed. She is battling on the frontlines and leading the CHRISTUS Cabrini ER team through this fourth surge. She is ready to share her journey and passionate message about remaining vigilant and getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
CHRISTUS Calling 